Kalvin Jones recieiveing the Bronze Medal for Bravery at Government House. Photo by Manfred Joehnck
The two paramedics who were first on scene at the La Loche High school shooting in January were among 23 people to receive bravery medals during a ceremony at government house in Regina this afternoon.
Darryl Morin and Kalvin Jones entered the school to help the victims even though the shooter was still inside. Jones says it was a scene of chaos when they arrived.
“People just started panicking like everywhere, like panic was like already fully set in,” he said. “We started to figure out O.K., exactly what is going on here and we started clearing the area.”
Jones says he did what any other paramedic would have done that day. His partner, Darryl Morin, did not want to get into detail about the events of January 22nd except to say everyone did their best.
“Like I really don’t want to talk about it, like how difficult it was, we just responded that day and did what we had to do,” he said. “It was a very sad day, that day, but we did all we could.”
Morin has still not returned to work, but expects to be back on the job in a couple of weeks.
Others to receive bravery medals from Saskatchewan’s Lieutenant Governor included Jaret Nelson, a band councillor with the Montreal Lake Cree Nation.
On March 17th of this year, he went into the woods to track a suicidal man from the reserve who armed himself and drove off into the bush on a quad, later abandoning the vehicle and heading off on foot.
It was minus 20 at the time and getting colder. Nelson tracked the man for several hours eventually locating him, talking him down and brought him to safety. RCMP had advised Jaret to give up the search when it got dark but he persisted till he found the man.
Clark Whitecalf ran into a burning house on the Sweetgrass First Nation on August 31st of 2015 to save an 18-year-old woman. She suffered severe burns and smoke inhalation in the fire.
Whitecalf also suffered smoke inhalation as he crawled through the living room of the home in thick choking smoke trying to locate the victim.